NEW ORLEANS – After goalkeeper Immanuel Quickley buried a hat-trick to give the Knicks a 10-point lead in Wednesday’s second quarter, a visiting bluesman who settled the baseline applauded loudly on Wednesday night’s Big Easy.
Knicks owner James Dolan made his first pandemic appearance as one of the 3,700 spectators at the Smoothie King Center. Dolan sat between his team president, Leon Rose, and senior vice president William Wesley, because he can finally cheer on a winning team.
Julius Randle added 32 points and the Knicks hampered Zion Williamson late, so Dolan could see his team post their first four-game win of the season, beating the Pelicans 116-106.
Williamson, the new NBA superstar, who came out to the edge with devastating power, finished with 25 points, but only scored four in the final period. He shot 10 to 19, but failed to get a triple.
Alec Burks caught fire with the Knicks in the fourth quarter and finished with 21 points, drilling 4 of 7 triples.
Randle won his showdown with Williamson, going 5 for 8 from the 3-point ground, while adding eight rebounds and five assists. RJ Barrett, Duke of Williamson’s teammate, had the second straight night and finished with just six points.
After staying out of the playoffs seven years in a row, the Dolan Knicks improved to 29-27 and tied with the Heat in sixth place in the Eastern Conference. Next month, Dolan, who was head coach Tom Thibodeau and some of the players coming off the court after the win, will likely be sitting in his Garden suite watching the Knicks ’first postseason game since 2013.
“It was fantastic,” Thibodeau said of Dolan’s attendance at the game. “It’s always great to have him around, I think the players are grateful. We also had Dr. (Lisa) Callahan here, so excited to have her. Maybe they are our good luck charms. He also had Leon and Wes, they had a full. “
In his first career game against the Knicks, Williamson looked amplified, especially facing his fellow Duke, Barrett.
In the first half, Randle, the former pelican, hit his first three triples against Williamson, but then went cold and finished the half 4 for 15.
The Knicks ’11-point lead disintegrated to 53-52 at the break. Barrett fought, going 1-5 for just three points in the half.
Randle and Derrick Rose warmed up in a 40-point third quarter, and the Knicks won a 93-89 lead in the fourth quarter.
Burks punched a 3 with 10:25 left to advance the score to 99-90 and hit another 3 at 8:10 as the Knicks advanced 104-93. Burks ’last dagger came in 1:20 when his three-pointer collided with an eight-point lead.
Pelicans coach Stan Van Gundy said that before the game the Knicks “played as well as any team in the East” and called them “a return to the Knicks of the ’90s” than his brother, Jeff, he trained.
Nerlens Noel was announced as the Knicks ’starting center 30 minutes before the game, but was scratched moments before the start with an ankle injury. This left Taj Gibson as the starting center and the Knicks used Norvel Pelle, a ten-day contract signer, as a reserve.
Pelle had a decent eight-minute stretch, scoring his first two cubes as a Knick, an alley-oop jam and a rebound, and blocking a Williamson drive, but he also scored a goal for Williams. Pelle finished with a plus-19 at 12:43.